Recycling Inspector Rant
I just need to rant a bit for some of the dumb things people put in our recycling and organics bins lately that just irk the shit out of me.
1: Ice packs from mail order food vendors. So many people are throwing the whole ice pack in the recycling bin. A majority of them have instructions to cut open and pour the contents down the drain and then recycle the package with plastic bags (which we do not take). I know. Reading is really hard.
2: This new insulation in packaging, made from old rags or shirts or some sort of shredded fabric. It comes In a white plastic bag with no info on it, including no recycling triangle. I'm glad the company is trying to recycle this material even though it will probably end up in the trash anyhow, but they need to put instructions on what to do with it.
3: ARTIFICIAL PLANTS! IN THE ORGANICS BIN?! I run across this too frequently. SMH
4: Any sort of electronics with a lithium battery in it. We have a bunch of places you can take them to dispose of them, but NO, their lazy asses just toss it in the recycling cart because "it's plastic". Little do they realize that if a battery gets ruptured in one of the trucks, that's half a million dollars down the drain when it catches fire.
5: Used pet or bed pads. I recently had to argue with some genius who kept yelling "but it's plastic!" over and over. I got a little frustrated and told him "Yeah, but it's covered in urine and poop!" (Have to watch my language in front of the public).
6: Loose plastic bags, film, and wrappers. Another one of those "but it's plastic" things, but I have to explain to SO many people that when it's loose, it gets all caught up in the belts and gears of our machines and does a significant amount of damage. What's even more annoying is we no longer accept any of this, even if it's properly bundled. For about a year, we had new cart labels that the 1st thing on there was "NO PLASTIC BAGS" with a picture, clearly on there. And I open the cart to find a bunch of loose bags and film. Ugh.
7: Hiding. Trash. On. The. Bottom. Of. The. Cart. I was SO tempted to throw a bag of garbage I found into their driveway the other day. Daily, I find this daily. These morons think "it's ok, if they don't see it, then it will magically will disappear". They don't bother to think that it costs money to dispose of all of that trash and a significant amount of the budget is wasted on cleaning up their mess.
The worst part about all of this is that we have so many ways to dispose of stuff correctly that If you follow the guidelines, you could actually save money on your bill.
OK. That's enough for now. Phew. All I ask is please follow your local recycler's rules and use the program properly.